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What I Ate: September 20, 2009 (The Mighty Cone, Pho Thaisson)

Posted 20 September, 2009 at 6:15pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: Before church, we stopped at The Mighty Cone (1603 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 383-9609‎) for some brunch. We intended to go to South Congress Cafe across the street, but they were packed. Since The Mighty Cone's trailer was nearby, we ordered a Purple Pig Cone (pulled pork with red cabbage cole slaw) and a Cone Dog (venison sausage).
The Mighty Cone - Purple Pig Cone and Cone Dog

Dinner: We had pho at Pho Thaison (9500 S I H 35 # L800, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 280-2060‎) in Southpark Meadows.
Pho Thaison - Pho

What I Ate: September 19, 2009 (Chuy's Restaurant, Chi Chinese Buffet)

Posted 19 September, 2009 at 9:58pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: Ate lunch with Tina's old boss and Jack from Eating in a Box at Chuy's Restaurant (4301 W William Cannon Dr, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 899-2489‎). I ordered the Chuychanga and it was really good. Tina had the chile relleno with shrimp and I had a taste and really liked the flavors and textures of that dish as well.
Chuy’s - Chuychanga

Dinner: Tina and I stopped at Chi Chinese Buffet (9900 S I H 35, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 292-0303‎) for dinner before watching Jennifer's Body (2.5/5.0) at the theater next door.
Chi Chinese Buffet

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What I Ate: September 19, 2009 (Chuy's Restaurant, Chi Chinese Buffet)

What I Ate: September 18, 2009 (Whip In)

Posted 18 September, 2009 at 11:04pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: Tina cooked lu rou (pork braised in soy sauce and spices - in this case pork ribs) and sauteed some spinach for lunch.
lu rou with spinach

Dinner: We had a craving for Indian food, so we decided to try Whip In (1950 S I H 35, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 442-5337) which features a kind of Indian + Western + natural foods menu. It's really more of a natural foods convenience store / beer and wine shop with the restaurant tacked on. The restaurant features live music on weekends in a very intimate setting.

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What I Ate: September 18, 2009 (Whip In)

What I Ate: September 17, 2009 (Serrano's)

Posted 17 September, 2009 at 8:27pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: More errands in the morning, so we stopping in at a Serrano's on our way back. I ordered the Tacos Grandes with Spanish rice and charro beans. The tacos were quite large, crispy, and stuffed full of ground beef and fresh vegetables (crisply shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes). The beef wasn't as flavorful as I would like taco meat to be, but it was fine. The charro beans were decent and the Spanish rice was pretty good as well.
Serrano’s - Taco Grandes

Dinner: After a couple hours of yard work, Tina pan fried the leftover dumplings we had from dinner at her parent's place.
Pan Fried Dumplings

What I Ate: September 16, 2009 (HEB, Hudson's on the Bend)

Posted 17 September, 2009 at 1:38am by Michael Chu
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Dinner: For our last Austin Restaurant Week dinner for this week (we haven't planned next week's dinners yet), I selected Hudson's on the Bend (3509 Ranch Road 620 N, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 266-1369‎) which might be Austin's most expensive restaurant. The meal was not as good as we had hoped it to be.

After ordering, our bread arrived in a small cast iron skillet set on a folded cloth towel on a tilted stone slab. It came with two butters - a tomato infused butter and a chive and herb infused butter. The bread was sweet and herbaceous. A combination that did not agree with me or Tina. We're normally bread eaters, but today we had one piece and pushed the bread away. The sweetness of the bread was unappetizing and the flavor of the bread completely overpowered the butters (which, when I tasted by themselves, were quite delicious).
Hudson’s on the Bend - Bread

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What I Ate: September 16, 2009 (HEB, Hudson's on the Bend)

What I Ate: September 15, 2009

Posted 15 September, 2009 at 8:44pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: Tina cooked a soup with udon, poached egg, fresh spinach, mushrooms, and Chinese sausage.
Udon

Dinner: Tina and I went over to her parent's place where we had homemade dumplings for dinner.
Homemade Dumplings

What I Ate: September 14, 2009 (Driskill Grill)

Posted 14 September, 2009 at 11:44pm by Michael Chu

Dinner: Tina and I headed over to The Driskill Grill (604 Brazos St, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 391-7162) for their Austin Restaurant Week dinner. The dinner was fantastic and at a price of $35 per person, this was a great way to get a sample of what The Driskill Grill does well. Tina and I shared a demi bottle of Vietti Cascinetta Moscato d'Asti 2008 with our meal. Amuse bouches arrived (three of them!): Seared rabbit loin with strawberry-blackberry relish, lemon-basil sorbet, and caramelized onion puff pastry.
The Driskill Grill - Amuse Bouches

Seared rabbit loin with strawberry-blackberry relish - Remarkably tender, but a little disconcertingly so. The rabbit loin almost tasted like ham in both texture and taste. I wonder if it was brined a bit too long resulting in the texture change. Still, it was very good paired with the bright flavors of the strawberry relish.
The Driskill Grill - Seared rabbit loin with strawberry-blackberry relish

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What I Ate: September 14, 2009 (Driskill Grill)

What I Ate: September 13, 2009 (Jeffrey's Restaurant and Bar)

Posted 13 September, 2009 at 11:15pm by Michael Chu
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Dinner: Our first Austin Restaurant Week dinner was at Jeffrey's Restaurant and Bar (1204 West Lynn Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 477-5584‎).
Jeffrey’s Restaurant

After we ordered our three course meals of a special (reduced) tasting menu, they presented us with an amuse bouche of Champagne & Grapefruit Sorbet. Since it wasn't all that warm today, this mostly just served to make us cold. It was so cold that Tina didn't eat hers until it was half melted. The sorbet was fairly winey, but had good grapefruit flavor.
Jeffrey’s Restaurant - Amuse Bouche - Champagne Grapefruit Sorbet

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What I Ate: September 13, 2009 (Jeffrey's Restaurant and Bar)

What I Ate: September 12, 2009 (Manna Korean Restaurant, Domino's Pizza)

Posted 12 September, 2009 at 11:20pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: Tina and I headed up to Manna Korean Restaurant (6808 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 323-0635) in the back of the Han Yang Market. Tina ordered bibimbap (rice bowl with various vegetables, pork, and a fried egg).
Manna Korean Restaurant - Bibimbap

I had kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup with tofu and rice flour cakes) which was very flavorful, but turned out to be a bit too sour for me. Also, it didn't have any pork in it (as I had expected from the menu posted on the wall). This wasn't completely surprising as the other jjigae they had on the menu had the meat crossed out.
Manna Korean Restaurant - Kimchi jjigae

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What I Ate: September 12, 2009 (Manna Korean Restaurant, Domino's Pizza)

Photo of the Day: 360 Condominiums (Austin, Texas)

Posted 11 September, 2009 at 11:56pm by Michael Chu

I took this night time, long exposure photo of the tallest building Austin - 360 Condominiums from the parking structure for the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Immediately after parking, I thought that the parking lot would be a nice place to take a few pictures of the city (especially at that time with the twilight colors coming down over the cityscape). When we got out of the performance, it was well after 10pm and the colors had all changed. Nevertheless, the 360 Condominiums building stood tall and colorful by itself.
360 Condominiums (Austin, Texas)
Tripod, 5 sec at f/5.6 on ISO 200, 85mm f/1.8 lens

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